Taking Cues

I had the opportunity to talk to the Composer yesterday and I think it’s going to work out just fine. We came up with some good ideas about what we are trying to convey in each area and he was just full of useful information regarding different kinds of period style musics. I mean, I have a decent idea what Baroque music is, but he mentioned some very obscure types, that thematically fit extremely well. What’ll be interesting is seeing how he updates them to make them sound authentic while being interesting to modern ears. Oh, and looping it since it’s a game. His only request game wise is to figure out how to make the credits longer, since he wants to do a medley. That’s easy enough.The nice thing about the music (unlike the SFX or animations) is that the core for having it is already there. All I really do is just plug it in and it’ll just go. It’s a little like the backgrounds in that regard.

I’ve been in the process of playing Rise of the Argonauts and after an hour I considered taking it back. Now I’m glad I didn’t. I was always given the impression it would be a combat oriented kind of experience, so when 20 minutes of stabbing with the spear (which is sweet) was followed by 60 minutes of talking with the mouth, I was confused just a little.Turns out, the game has a lot more in common with Knights of the Old Republic than it does with God of War. The talking and the story are actually the core of the game. Once I realized that and started enjoying the game it is and not lamenting the game it isn’t I found I enjoyed it quite a lot.RotA is a perfect example of something I learned the hard way last year : The game you make is the game you have time for. It does have some odd inconsistencies that could have been ironed out with more time, but I don’t mind. Actually, like a cookie, I like it more because it’s a little undercooked. But the obvious detail and craft that went into everything show me that the people that made it really wanted to do something cool with it. So it seems that they spent every minute making sure that as little as possible was cut instead of chopping away and polishing the rest. I respect that.Besides, it’s the first game to come along in a while that I can play for 4 hours straight (sorry Castle level – you can wait another day) so that has to count for something.